In recent years, it is becoming more usual for people in both offices and in the home to drink bottled water rather than the water from a water tap. Countless other situations exist where water is difficult to obtain or where available water or water quality leaves much to be desired. In many cases this also creates a need to carry and lift heavy bottles of water periodically and to carry the water from the place where it was purchased to the place where it will be used. Accordingly, there have been some attempts to provide water generating devices to alleviate these problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,931,347 to Gay issued Oct. 17, 1933, prepares potable water from a supply of water which is first frozen, to remove impurities. It does not treat water without first freezing it.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,409,624 to Granville issued Oct. 22, 1946, is a complicated system for providing water. It is manually powered and uses the "sulfuric acid system".
U.S. Pat. No. 3,035,418 to Wright issued May 22, 1962, provides water from air, but is lacking in many of the features needed to produce potable water for modern day uses. There is no safety provision allowing only properly operable filters to be used, and no provision to allow water production only when certain temperature/humidity conditions can be met.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,009 to Kooney issued Apr. 13, 1971, provides rapidly operating water vapor condensing means for use with a laundry clothes dryer. It uses ice as coolant and uses a filtering material designed to remove only lint from the resulting condensed water. The condensed water vapor is claimed to be suitable for use in steam irons or for any "other" purpose requiring water. There are no provisions for obtaining water of any confident purity level from the ambient air. Also, it has no air filter, has only a coarse water filter, no operational controls except the manually supplied ice filled chill unit, and it can only work during the time that a clothes dryer is operating.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,442 to Swanson issued July 11, 1972, discloses an apparatus for recovering potable water from "humid" air. It is thus not designed to operate at varying humidity levels, and fresh water is used as a coolant with water pumps. It has no air or water filters and no refined controls. It diverts condensed water vapor to the cool water bath as needed, and only the overflow is channeled to another container and is called potable. Swanson does not use a fan or blower to move air through his unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,132 to Nasser et al. issued Jan. 8, 1980, is designed to operate in hot and humid regions only; its primary purpose is to cool and dehumidify ambient air in relatively large areas such as a city neighborhood. There is no provision for protecting the purity of the water. It must be taller than the tallest building in the area, requires a foundation recessed in the ground, cannot be in any enclosing structure and must be in an open area free of ground contours, needs at least two air passages, and a heat dissipator in a passageway separate from the passageway containing the air cooler and moisture condenser. It relies on the specific gravity of cold air sinking within the device and hot air rising within the device. It has no air or water filters to protect the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,937 to Erlich issued Mar. 17, 1981, provides no operational controls for humidity, temperature, or filter conditions. The device also does not use a blower or fan.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,552 to Smith issued Feb. 28, 1984, does not mention potable water, has no air or water filters, requires a turbine, a generator, and wind. It has to be large (for example, it may be mounted on a trailer), it cannot be used indoors, there is no provision for protection of the water quality, and no filters for keeping insects, dust, etc. out of the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,570 to Littrell issued Jan. 9, 1990, is for agricultural water, and it only operates outdoors, is very large, designed for only high temperature regions, requires a wind of at least 5 mph to operate, is made of stone and cinder blocks, and has no refined controls or filters.